Tag: obesity epidemic

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The obesity crisis. How it started. Why it continues.

Have you ever wondered how the obesity crisis began and why it continues to grow? 

The Perfect Poison tells it all.  The Perfect Poison tells how free glutamic acid (an excitotoxic amino acid found in flavor-enhancers) is passed by pregnant women to their fetuses where it causes damage to the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus leaving the child with no way to control appetite or satiety.

The paperback and Kindle editions are available right here!

To Your Health,

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.
Director
Truth in Labeling Campaign
Chicago, Illinois   USA

Truthlabeling@gmail.com

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How glutamate caused (and continues to cause) the obesity epidemic

I wonder if it’s a conspiracy that’s behind keeping the truth about the obesity epidemic from the public, or if it’s just one immensely powerful person pulling the strings.  There has always been propaganda by the boatload, even carried in distinguished publications such as the New York Times and Washington Post.  Sometimes as an advertisement.  Sometimes dressed up as news.  But ever present.

From the time that neuroscientist Dr. John W. Olney discovered that free glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate) given to animals killed brain cells in the part of the brain responsible for controlling weight, one rich and powerful manufacturer of glutamate (also the manufacturer of monosodium glutamate – MSG), set out to convince the American public that MSG is a harmless food additive.

The campaign began by pretending to replicate Olney’s studies.  That didn’t work out, because they were quickly exposed for what they were, and by 1980 researchers were using MSG to kill neurons and produce obesity in experimental animals to facilitate their research on a whole variety of abnormalities, all with ties to glutamate.

Then, as people began to realize that ingestion of MSG was followed by adverse reactions ranging from simple skin rash to asthma, migraine headache, tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, anaphylaxis and seizures, the Glutes turned to producing double-blind studies that failed to find more reactions to MSG than reactions to a placebo, claiming they now had what amounted to proof that MSG is harmless.  But since the placebos all contained excitotoxic amino acids that cause reactions identical to the reactions caused by MSG, they only demonstrated that they were not above doing something that might qualify as scientific fraud.

Now the idea of conspiracy has come back to haunt me. You see, I’ve uncovered the fact that the root of the obesity epidemic lies in damage done to the vulnerable brains of unborn children. I studied the 1970s studies done by Olney and others, thinking that if obesity could be caused by feeding glutamate to infant animals, it could be caused by feeding glutamate to infant humans – or even more effectively to fetuses.

These are the facts:

Olney began with infant animals. Newborn humans and fetuses would be comparable.

Olney began with animals whose brains could be damaged by excitotoxic glutamate.  Newborn humans and fetuses would be comparable.

Olney fed exceedingly large amount of glutamate to those animals.  Since 1957, exceedingly large amounts of free glutamate have been available, accessible and consumed by humans.

In 1957:

1) the method for producing glutamate (found in MSG) was changed to facilitate virtually unlimited production of free glutamate and MSG, and

2) ultra-processed foods — all of which contain flavor-enhancing free glutamate in ingredients such as autolyzed yeast extract, sodium caseinate, maltodextrin, glutamic acid, and hydrolyzed proteins as well as MSG – became readily available, accessible, and increasingly more popular.

It is true that any one ingredient will contain a limited amount of free glutamate.  But glutamate in amounts needed to produce brain damage in vulnerable humans is readily available to those who consume a number of processed and ultra-processed foods during the course of a day.

The glutamate delivered to Olney’s neonatal animals was delivered in food fed to them.  The glutamate delivered to humans with vulnerable brains is delivered by their pregnant mothers.

Newborn humans could only receive glutamate in mothers’ milk or infant formula. But fetuses are “fed” through the umbilical cord, through the placenta.  And if a pregnant woman ingested large quantities of free glutamate, as she might if her diet included processed and ultra-processed food, the excitotoxic free glutamate would cause damage to the brain of her fetus just as it caused damage to the brains of Olney’s animals. And in humans that brain damage would be followed by intractable obesity just as it was in Olney’s animals.

(And isn’t it interesting that the obesity epidemic has hit hardest in low- income areas — locations with limited access to real food, and a dependence on processed and ultra-processed food).

Journal after journal has refused to publish the information that I have just shared with you.  The latest was Obesity, the prestigious journal of The Obesity Society.  It is common knowledge among the well informed that medical journals are now controlled by Big Pharma.  But that hardly qualifies as a “conspiracy.”  It’s just the way things are in the world of power and greed.

But when access to my account in LinkedIn disappeared along with all mention of the Safe Food group that I had established, the word “conspiracy” appeared brightly before me and will not go away.

Also finding its way into my consciousness are the assurances that 1) my description of how the obesity epidemic happened is accurate, and 2) that the Glutes have no way to defend against the truth that manufactured free glutamate consumed by pregnant women lies at the root of the obesity epidemic – except to bury that truth – which their assault on my LinkedIn account demonstrates.

Adrienne Samuels

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An open letter to Dr. Anthony G. Comuzzie

This February 28, 2022 letter to Dr. Anthony G. Comuzzie, CEO of the Obesity Society (which publishes the journal Obesity), requesting that he suggest a vehicle for making information about brain damage caused by free glutamate ingested by pregnant women and passed to their fetuses and neonates available to researchers and healthcare practitioners, has not been answered or even acknowledged.   

A copy of the letter is being posted here as an open letter to Dr. Comuzzie, with the hope that someone may forward it to him, and that he will respond.

Anthony G. Comuzzie, PhD, FTOS
contact@obesity.org 

Dear Dr. Comuzzie,

Are you aware that the editors of Obesity have refused to publish studies that demonstrate that the obesity epidemic was set in motion, and is sustained, by brain damage caused by pregnant women passing excitotoxic free glutamate to their offspring?  

Both 1) an overview of the subject submitted as a Perspective, and 2) a Review, demonstrating the role that ingestion of free glutamate ingested by pregnant women plays in the production of intractable obesity have been offered to your journal Obesity, and been refused consideration. 

I find that very strange.  How can papers that suggest and document the fact that a common amino acid used in processed food is responsible for the obesity epidemic not be assigned sufficient priority to allow publication in Obesity? 

It is obvious from texts of rejection letters that the editors of Obesity have no interest in resolving the cause of the obesity epidemic, suggesting new lines of investigation, and providing those who are afflicted with obesity appropriate psychological and medical interventions. 

The first manuscript was submitted as a perspective, a category that limits submissions to 1000 words and 10 references.   As specified by the journal’s instructions, “Perspectives can provide new ideas on an old problem or commentary/opinion of a hot topic.”  Accordingly, the manuscript provided a new idea on an old problem within the limited (10) references allowed, although there are many more references available to support its thesis. Appropriately, given that this was submitted as a perspective, taking seemingly unrelated things and putting them together to generate a new idea as Einstein was in the habit of doing, there was no hypothesis testing or experimental design for new data demonstrating suitable controls, and there were no statistical tests reported.  

In rejecting it, editor Eric Ravussin stated that “there was really nothing novel on the specific role of glutamate as a trigger of obesity in your piece. All the scientific references but one were from more than 20 years ago.” 

I find it hard to comprehend how it could be that the idea of glutamate ingested by pregnant women causing brain damage in fetuses and neonates followed by intractable obesity is not novel.  To suggest that data have a shelf life of 20 years would put Einstein and Galileo out of business. 

The second submission was a request to submit a review to Obesity.  It was rejected in part because it was submitted by a single author, and in part because there was “no systematic evaluation of clinical trials or meta-analysis to evaluate glutamate on obesity risk,” neither of which would necessarily be appropriate for a review.  Moreover, it was rejected because “we also request reviews on hot topics in the field of obesity.”  I can’t think of any hotter topic in the field of obesity than the cause of the obesity epidemic. 

Given that the journal of the Obesity Society will not publish information on the cause of the obesity epidemic, sharing insights that will benefit those who suffer intractable weight gain, would you, please, suggest a vehicle for making information about brain damage caused by free glutamate ingested by pregnant women and passed to their fetuses and neonates available to researchers and healthcare practitioners? 

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely, 
Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.
Director
Truth in Labeling Campaign
Chicago, Illinois   USA 

truthlabeling@gmail.com

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Questions and answers: What’s causing the obesity epidemic?

What’s causing the obesity epidemic?

They’re called excitotoxins.

These are Jekyll and Hyde amino acids.

On the one hand, they’re absolutely necessary for human
health.

On the other hand, they turn toxic/poisonous when more are
eaten than needed.

What damage do they do?

They damage the brains of vulnerable people.

People who have had head injuries,

People whose brains are not yet mature,

A newborn child,

A child in the womb: a fetus.

How can excitotoxins get to the immature brains of newborns and
fetuses?

Excitotoxins are eaten by pregnant women.

Pregnant women pass what they eat to their unborn offspring
(fetuses) through the umbilical cord and the placenta.

Nursing mothers pass what they eat to their babies through mother’s
milk.

Exactly what damage do these excitotoxins do to the brains of fetuses and newborns that brings about obesity?

They obliterate (wipe out) the neurons (nerve cells) in that part of the
arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus that would have played a role in
weight control, had they not been destroyed.

And although the empty space left in the brain when the neurons are
destroyed is filled in with other cells, the neurons are not replaced.

What excitotoxins do this?

The one known best from research done in the 1970s is glutamic acid
(a.k.a. glutamate).

Glutamate is essential for normal body function. There has always
been glutamate in food. Why haven’t more people always been
obese?

Until 1957, the glutamate in food (and there is glutamate in
essentially all food) was almost always part of something larger than
itself. It was a part of protein. Scientists who wanted to examine
glutamate had to break the protein apart before they could examine it.
(They speak of glutamate being “bound up” in protein: tied to other
amino acids in long chains. That’s still true.)

Glutamate bound in protein is not excitotoxic. Only glutamate outside
of protein causes brain damage.

In 1957, the U.S. manufacturer of excitotoxic glutamate (for use in
monosodium glutamate) revised its manufacturing process, and from
that point on, virtually unlimited amounts of excitotoxic manufactured
free glutamate (MfG) were produced. After 1957, there was sufficient
MfG in ultra-processed food (at least in the U.S.) to provide the
“excess” amounts of MfG needed to cause brain damage.

Then why didn’t the “obesity epidemic” happen in 1957?

1957 was the year that the new and improved method for fabricating
virtually unlimited amounts of the excitotoxic – brain damaging – MfG
was put into production. But 1960 was the year that increased
obesity began to be noticed. 1960-62 saw the first statistics kept on
numbers of overweight people.

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The evolution of Type 2 Obesity

Type 2 Obesity is the intractable, unyielding obesity that follows when excessive amounts of a toxic chemical:

1. Are ingested by pregnant women,

2. Are “fed” through the placenta to their fetuses,

3. Destroy brain cells in the fetus that would have played a role in weight control.

Check it out.  The data are published.

The obesity epidemic was set in motion when virtually unlimited amounts of brain damaging flavor enhancers were added to practically every processed food and snack. 

History paints a clear picture of the obesity epidemic timeline.

  • Prior to 1957, there had been no reports of food-induced adverse reactions to flavor-enhancers, no studies demonstrating food-induced brain damage, no obesity epidemic, no infertility crisis, and the incidence of glutamate-induced abnormalities had not yet begun to skyrocket.

  • 1957 was the year that a new and improved method for producing virtually unlimited amounts of the excitotoxic – brain damaging – (manufactured) free glutamate (MfG) was put into production.

  • 1960 was the year that increased obesity began to be noticed. 1960-62 saw the first statistics kept on numbers of overweight people. 

  • In 1969, the first studies documented the fact that brain cells were destroyed following intake of substantial amounts of MfG. In that year, the first of many animal studies were published demonstrating that MfG causes brain lesions in the area of the brain responsible for appetite and satiety (i.e. weight control).  Those studies documented the fact that brain cells were destroyed following intake of substantial amounts of MfG, that ablated brain cells were not replaced with neurons, and that the obesity manifested by those animals became evident as they reached maturity. 

  • By the mid-1970s, obesity had reached epidemic proportions.

And that’s the evolution of the obesity epidemic: Excessive amounts of free glutamate ingested by pregnant women are passed to their fetuses where it causes brain lesions in the arcuate nucleus followed by gross obesity.

Adrienne

RESOURCES:

Glutamic acid: initiator of the obesity epidemic  (data)
https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/obesity_review_shortened_final_with_reference.pdf

Getting to the root of obesity (an overview)
https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/MASTERS_Perspective.pdf

How I know what I know about the obesity epidemic
https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/obesity_how_i_know.pdf

Seven lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate, no matter where it is found, is toxic:

  • Review of animal studies done in the 1970s that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG and MfG: evidence that the glutamate in MSG and other flavor enhancers and protein substitutes becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in amounts that exceed what a healthy subject needs for normal body function.
    https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/seven_lines/Seven_Lines_Lines2.pdf

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My goal for 2022: Making known the hidden truth about obesity and the obesity epidemic

Encouraged by an invitation from LinkedIn, I just posted my goal for 2022 on my LinkedIn page.  And that made me realize that I might achieve that goal a lot sooner if health-conscious people would start talking about ‘type one obesity’ – speaking out so loudly that healthcare professionals would act on the fact that there are people out there who have no control over their weight and would give them the help that they need to deal with their disabilities.  So, I’m sharing with you and hoping that you will share with others.

Losing weight is the number one goal for Americans in 2022. It was also at the top of the list last year, the year before that, and on and on.  

As I see it, there are two types of obesity (similar to the two types of diabetes). Type 1 obesity is something that can’t be controlled with diet and exercise. Type 2 obesity can be controlled with diet and exercise – if a person chooses to do so and is willing to put out the effort.  

My goal for 2022 is to share what I discovered about type 1 obesity as I was researching the dangers of MSG and MfG (manufactured free glutamate).  I’m hoping that doing so will help wipe out the shame and blame suffered by people with a condition over which they’ve never had control.

Most people understand that if you consume more calories that you need, you’ll put on weight.  What I discovered (or more precisely uncovered) is that before a child’s brain is fully developed, it is possible to damage that part of the brain that regulates appetite and turns off the desire to continue eating.  Each of us should have been born with a switch, so to speak, that turns hunger on and off, telling us when we’ve had enough to eat. I discovered that it’s possible to wipe out the part of the brain that contains the “switch.” And that happened to so many people in the 1960s and 1970s (and continues to happen to this day), that it’s being called the “obesity epidemic.”

My goal is to share that information.  In this age of instantaneous communication that shouldn’t be a difficult goal to attain. And the most effective way to be successful would be to publish a well thought out, well researched article in a medical journal focused on obesity, explaining that excitotoxic amino acids fed to pregnant women will be passed on to the fetus where it will damage that part of the brain responsible for weight control.

But editors of medical journals don’t seem to have an interest in publishing something that might displease Big Food. True, my goal for 2022 may appear difficult, even unattainable, but as Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.